Zimbabwe has received a $65-million grant from the United Nations to bolster its fight against HIV/Aids, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, a government minister said on Thursday.
”We signed the agreement with them [the UN’s Global Fund] yesterday [Wednesday],” Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti said.
”These funds will be used to increase our HIV/Aids, malaria and TB programme. We also hope to reintroduce the fixed-drug combination of anti-TB drugs using these funds.”
Zimbabwe is one of the countries hardest hit by the HIV/Aids pandemic with at least 3 000 people dying weekly from Aids-related illness — or about one person every three minutes — according to the National Aids Council.
The country has also experienced an upsurge in the number of TB cases linked to HIV/Aids.
”Our hope is to make anti-retroviral drugs available to everyone in need of them by 2010,” Muguti said.
Muguti said that even after receiving the grant the health ministry, plagued by chronic shortages of drugs, equipment and critical understaffing, will still need more money.
Two weeks ago the ministry signed another $40-million deal with Britain, Sweden, Ireland, Norway and UN agencies in the country to launch new HIV/Aids projects.
The programme in which Britain, Norway, Ireland and Sweden will provide money while UN agencies will provide technical support is set to run for the next three years. — Sapa-AFP